When applying a surface coating, such as paint or stain, to a surface, care must be taken so that the paint does not get on the surfaces adjacent to the surface to be painted. This can be accomplished by carefully painting the surface, or by masking off the area around the surface to be painted. Masking articles, such as masking tapes and adhesive masking sheets, are often used to protect the area adjacent to the surface being painted. When using such masking articles, it is generally desirable that the paint not bleed past the demarcation line defined by the edge of the masking article. In this manner, the masking article will produce a paint line between the painted surface and unpainted surface that is smooth and consistent, and precisely matches the line intended by the user. Depending on a number of factors, such as how well such masking articles are applied to the surface, the energy of the surface, and the texture of the surface to which such masking articles are applied, paint may flow beyond the edge of the masking article and under certain regions of the masking article, thereby producing an imprecise paint line.
Paints continue to be developed, particularly those that are easy to clean and/or that have low or no volatile organic compound content. Surfaces painted with such paints can provide problems for masking articles and other adhesive articles with respect to binding properties. That is, easy to clean and/or low/no VOC painted surfaces are very problematic for most (meth)acrylate-based and rubber-based masking tapes. New adhesives are needed, particularly water-based adhesive compositions.